Air diffusers have long been known in heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Because of condensation and moisture concerns, many present day air diffusers are heavily insulated and/or formed of materials other than metals. Typically, fiberglass is the material of choice for such air diffusers or insulation (hereinafter, collectively air diffusers) and often times a foil sheet, such as aluminum, covers one side of the fiberglass as is well known in the art.
During manufacture of such fiberglass and foil air diffusers, a mechanical molding apparatus clamshells the fiberglass and foil between a male and female mold of an appropriate shape and applies heat. Before molding, however, a human operator typically Apreforms@ the fiberglass and foil material by hand into a shape comparable to the mold shapes to prevent the foil from delaminating from the fiberglass or to prevent other damage to the materials since molding generally occurs under severe operating conditions with forces on the order of 10–12 tons and temperatures of 400EF being typical. Although necessary, the preforming step occurs one air diffuser per one operator at a time thereby making it manually intensive. In addition, it presently consumes a disproportionate amount of the manufacturing time.
Accordingly, the air diffuser arts desire improvements having economic and expeditious benefits in the manufacture thereof.